A photo of Mokhtar Belmokhtar from 2013 that includes his kunya, Khalid Abu al Abbas

Al Murabitoon, a jihadist group that operates in Mali, has denied the death of one of its leaders, Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Belmokhtar was reported killed after a US airstrike on a known jihadist hangout in eastern Libya on Monday and was confirmed the target of the strike a day later. The US said that it was targeting a meeting between several jihadist groups in eastern Libya. Belmokhtar is a longtime al Qaeda-veteran and pledges allegiance to Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of al Qaeda.

Al Akhbar, a Mauritanian news agency that often carries statements from Al Murabitoon and other Saharan jihadist groups, reports that the group is denying that Belmokhtar was killed in the strike. "We reassure the Islamic nation and the entire jihadist brothers of the non-veracity of the information in the reports of the death of Khalid Abu Abbas (a nom de guerre of Belmokhtar) " It goes on to say that the airstrikes killed "our brothers in the Ajdabiya Shura Council." The Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council (ARSC) is a coalition of jihadist groups in the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya, which is close to where the airstrikes took place, and is connected to the al Qaeda-linked Ansar al Sharia. It is believed that ARSC was hosting the meeting between the jihadist groups.